The Pounding

lead vocal: Tom

Out there in the distance, pounding with insistence

Guess it’s headed straight for me

I was standing still and now I feel the thrill but

It’s only a fantasy

One question reminds me when it always finds me

Miles and miles from where we ought to be

All this pounding, but it’s not sounding like

Dreams could ever set me free

I’ve been trying to call out after all the fallout

I’ve just let it all out; I’ve just let it all out

Now, I can’t mistake it—dreamers only fake it

I’m just trying to make it; I’m just trying to make it

Yea, though I may journey through the valley burning

I hear music in my head

It brings no solution, no real resolution

Just dreams on the heals of dread

Full time channel master, turn my head even faster

Have you got a better suggestion?

Giving it a voice, I’ve had no other choice

I’ve had no time to answer the question

In God We Trust

lead vocal: Tom

Banners, oh so small, but not amast—no one would ever dare

Flying under radar, under tables, unaware

Emblazoned with an ageless battle cry

Bearing all the faith we know

In God we trust

Twisted righteous soldiers with a message they are dying to tell

Blood obscures all meaning—how can heaven lead from hell?

Shouting their familiar battle cry

They attack and we reply

In God we trust

For my reality overdose, I need to take a drug

Hate and conviction—they can both boast

Spawning each other

In God we trust

History and Science: Looks like no one gets a passing score

Reason can’t prevail and I can’t take it anymore

Grasping for the means to carry on

Maybe I’d be wise to say

In God we trust

For my reality overdose, I need to take a drug

Refuge and danger kneel, oh so close

Spawning each other

In God we trust

Unsettled Near the Shore

lead vocal: Tom

Peter’s so upset today

His London tickets turned out not to be first-class after all

So he had a tall latte to ease his mind with a raspberry scone

At Nordstrom’s in the mall

Later there’s a jazz band at the museum

Wine and cheese is served before you see ‘em

Beth just met a man at Mimi’s dance

He was a lawyer or an investor, I don’t remember

Old Town address, new Mercedes, fine antiques, he’s 69

She likes that May-December

He’s not Jewish, but he knew Jackie-O

He’s going to France next month, and he wants Beth to go

Shining city built in their defiance of class and kings

Settlers now unsettled near the shore

I was raised a morning’s drive away from here

But this place makes it feel like so much more

I’ve never been to England, but I’ll always love the songs

Maybe a man like me should just be back where he belongs

I’m going home

Susan’s fine in black dress and blue jeans

Like every kind of music: Classical, jazz, and blues

Plays Bach in her cubicle, eats fresh fruit all day long

Waiting for her promotion news

But then she’ll say, “Swiss chocolate could sustain ya...”

Who cares the best stuff comes from Pennsylvania?

Rebels once—they stood proud in their new land

Settlers...etc...

Pack up that old Chevy, cuz the next stop is the Super 8 Motel

I need to find America, where humble life is still alive and well...

Ruth’s Chris steaks are forty bucks

The rest is a la carte, and, man, it’s hard to get a seat

Outback fills your belly at half the price

And, friends, you know that it’s the same damn piece of meat

The East has cast it’s vote, and so it goes...

So tassle up those shoes and raise your nose

Long ago—a haven for the common man

Settlers...etc...

A Fire That Isn’t There

lead vocal: Rob

So it seems that there was something happening from the very start

That first glance sparked our strange platonic romance

You think you have inner walls, but mine are tearing us apart

Yet, I feel maybe this thing could be so real

Oh, but your world is so far away, and our passion is not in play

Still, we have so much to say

My heart’s so polluted, everything’s so convoluted

People always say that thing about how you’ll know when it’s right

Well, that’s nice, but I could use more solid advice

Maybe we’ll be one by day but then take separate lovers in the night

And maybe I could even call you “baby”

Oh, but we’ve got to find a way

To believe it’s all okay

It’s a blinding shade of gray

My libido’s sleeping, but my heart is truly leaping

Don’t you see how this story ends?

Close the book and show your golden hair

Love is stronger between good friends

I can’t stoke a fire that isn’t there

Would it be enough if I could only love you from my heart?

My true love, I’m inventing a brand new love

Pretty soon we’ll know our destiny—a course we cannot chart

And meanwhile you are always making me smile

Even if I don’t know the name

Of our love, and if love’s a game

Then we’ll cheat without any shame

Once I was so gloomy, now there’s something happening to me

My heart is turning upside down

The fire isn’t there, but smoke is all around

Am I a fool, or am I strong?

I wonder if it’s right, and then I’m sure that it’s all wrong

I wonder...where do we belong?

My Little Part of the World

lead vocal: Tom

Every night I dream of a life

A life unknown to me; a woman I can’t see

Filled with love, puts nothing above

All that she could ever need...

My little part of the world. My little part of the world

Isn’t all that much, so when I feel her touch

I know that she needs only be in

My little part of the world, my little part of the world

I resist, but still I’m awake

To a world equally strange, so fearing every change

But she’s not there, so who’s going to care

When I try to rearrange

My little part of the world? My little part of the world

Isn’t really much, so I could use the touch

Of someone who needs only be in

My little part of the world, my little part of the world

It is said, if instead of life, only dreams get in your eyes

They don’t mean a thing; they can’t make you wise

I Don’t Understand You

lead vocal: Rob

We’re not the same

You’ve got your crowd, I’ve got mine

And I don’t dig the games you dig

Though I know they suit you fine

We both have other people

Kinda half-in-our-lives

Keeping us from trying

Too hard to make it work

Nothing seems quite worth the pains required

I dream of her and you smirk

But I know you love him still, though you act so sick-and-tired

I talk, you listen, you smile, you cry

All at the same time

I don’t understand you, I don’t understand you

I don’t understand why I love you

Try to pretend that I

Never saw the other girl, and then

Try to begin to see

You can’t have everything in the world

We’re not the same—oh, no

You’ve got your crowd, I’ve got mine

And I don’t dig the games you dig

Though I know they suit you fine

Try not to see my contradictions coming through

Try to understand how I could feel these things for you

Try to ignore the bad, but only on my cue

Try to understand me, try to understand me

Try to understand why I love you

‘Cause I don’t understand why I love you

A Northern Sun

lead vocal: Jack

Down under a northern sun

She felt her safe passage lay in providential sight

A thought not contradicted by a southern sun’s pale light

Free from doubt, she held sway, the queen of her domain

And when the sky began to gray, she had no fear of rain

Down under a northern sun

The deluge, when it finally came, gave her quite a shock

Her second sight had always seemed as solid as rock

The southern sun was blotted out, its warmth replaced by cold

But in her mind’s eye skies were clear, as in those tales of old

Danielle is in denial, at war with reality

Her dreams were all she thought she was

And all that she would be

Down under a northern sun

Accumulating unease finally led her to seek the sun

A southern course was plotted and the journey was begun

And, in time, the raindrops ceased, the sky again was blue

A northern sun shone bright and warm upon the lucky few

Danielle was in denial, but now she is at peace

A trip to the land of the northern sun

Has earned her sweet release

Long shackled by her dreams she’s finally found a home

Down under a northern sun

Whatever Dreams

lead vocal: Tom

Maybe it was spite, or just a blind and foolish fight

Sometimes all we know to be wrong turns out to be right

It lives between the lies, but the strong stuff never dies

And soon is the day that the strong of us have eyes

I couldn’t see the wood for the tree

And the forest has most certainly eluded me

Bitter laughter seems like whatever dreams

Might forever never morning daylight see

Just this side of midnight, all the scrambling half-ideas

Totally dissolve to a child’s escapes and fears

The stronger eyes awake to toil on ever shifting soil

And work despite the might to be of death and foil

Maybe they were right when childhood looked like dying light

Most embarked the journey armed with necessary sight

Oh, but it’s not over—am I right? Yeah, it’s not over

I hope I clear the clouds before it’s over

Dark Man

lead vocal: Rob

Trash-Can-Man, you better run

‘Cause this ain’t no accident

And you’ll hear voices from more than one

We now begin our fast descent

Captain Tripps was bad when it was never meant to be

Imagine people praying for catastrophe

Cryptic, misread scripture always leads us to a snag

And the Dark Man’s name is Flagg

The rock-star heroes left their mark

Like Christ and Santa Claus

’Cept Jesus’ skin was desert-dark...

That should give you pause

Now they’re all down in Boulder

Trying to find a barber’s chair

Even Samson’s cutting off his once-loved hair

Tommy’s last epiphany missed the masses

What a drag

And the Dark Man’s name is Flagg

It seems the center doesn’t hold

The General would reveal

A sad mistake the story told

But not deliberate or real

Men of deep held faith

Now hold an angry, awesome might

And every power east and west

Blurs wrong and right

Imagining no religion

Was just a lonely, hopeful tag

And the Dark Man’s name is Flagg

King for a Day

lead vocal: Brad

Once I thought I could stay King for a day

Build the world from one stone, never alone

Turn my head if it’s not free

What’s in this for me?

Winds blow hard in my face, leaving no trace

Will my way through this mess

I know what’s best

Everyone keeps saying the big picture

should be playing in my head

Maybe I have other plans instead

King for a day, King for a day

Once I dreamed that I could fly faster than the sky

Won’t you come out to play King for a Day?

Watch the world turn to stone; bury my bone

On Solid Land

lead vocals: Rob, Brad, Tom, and Jack

When Woody sat in the theater

The Marx Brothers brought him back to life

Don’t question success

The simplest of pleasures

Cut straight through all his sorrow like a knife

So if I digress

I’m trying to preserve it

I’m trying to deserve it

I’m trying just as hard as I can

I’ll get there when I’m supposed to

And to everyone I’m close to:

Just save a place for me on solid land

When Crosby left the prison

His trial by fire had gone way beyond tough love

But it worked anyway

I guess he found a reason

He found some line to keep his head above

What else can you say?

Sometimes things can change

You get lucky, things just happen to you

Sometimes things can change

In a room over the garage, and it’s through

Sometimes you find courage in the pit

Just a little bit, just a little bit

When Brian fired his shrink

A little bit of him was gone for good

But he’s still around

He talks a little funny

But all considered, I think it’s understood

His feet are on the ground

No America

lead vocals: Tom

You say they hate the America that you love

But I don’t know what you’re speaking of

The image in your mind

Is just a dream we left behind

There is no America

We’ve been complaining that our morals are in decay

Sounds like what The Wicked of September have been known to say

That’s what they really hate

It’s not our freedom, let’s get it straight

While we defend America

They terrorize us then they say how we’re to blame

Then they sit back and watch our media do the same

Our halls of justice give them victories their plans could never claim

There is no America

America, where are you?

That strong-willed, proud sense of confidence that we knew

We don’t know how to fight

We’re never sure if we’re right

I guess there’s no America

You say you cherish the America they despise

But you’re just seeing visions of the past in your eyes

I share the love you feel

But our true love—she isn’t real

There is no America